When digital multimedia is received and processed by a set-top-box, hardware and firmware may be used to decode and de-multiplex the received digital multimedia data stream into video and audio component data streams. The hardware and firmware must provide adequate processing performance as the data rate of the received multimedia data increases. The firmware may utilize one or more data fields in the received multimedia data, in order to properly display such multimedia content to a user. Unfortunately in some instances, the time it takes the firmware to access and process the one or more data fields may affect throughput, such that the multimedia content may not be properly displayed to the user. For example, the firmware may be involved in parsing the data to locate the one or more data fields in the multimedia data. In another example, the firmware may need to wait for a particular byte to arrive before processing may commence. In either case, the processing time may be increased and the throughput may suffer, ultimately reducing the performance of the set-top-box.
The limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.